US expert to deliver Gill memorial lecture

Punjab Police is organising the second K.P.S. Gill Memorial Lecture, to be delivered by leading US expert on Internal Security and Counter Terrorism, on Wednesday at the Indian School of Business in Mohali, near here.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will preside over the programme and deliver the keynote address, according to Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta.

Peter Chalk, working with Rand Corporation, US, will speak on the timely and relevant subject of 'Digitised Hate: Online Radicalism, Violent Extremism and Terrorism'.

A senior analyst and a renowned authority on transnational security threats, with a particular emphasis on insurgency, terrorism, violent extremism and illicit trafficking of people, drugs and weapons, Chalk has addressed these issues on a global basis, though most of his research and study has been centered on South Asia.

He is closely associated with capacity building for the Institute for Security Governance (ISG) in Monterey, California.

The importance of internet and associated social media platforms on the processes of radicalisation and the consequent spread of terrorism cannot be over-emphasised, said Dinkar Gupta.

The police forces should study these dynamic social processes, which are impacting policing and its response to terrorism.

Gupta said Punjab Police was committed to holding of the annual K.P.S. Gill Memorial Lecture to honour the late police officer, who led the state police bravely to its comprehensive victory over state-sponsored terrorism.

In the backdrop of the efforts being made to revive terrorism in Punjab, the influx of cross-border consignment of arms and ammunition through drones, and growing radicalization of the vulnerable and gullible youth on social media, such lectures on internal security would go a long way in improving our understanding of radicalism and terrorism, added Gupta.IANS